Media Smearing of Truth Movement Reaching a Crescendo

16 June, 2009

Recent months have seen numerous breakthroughs for the truth movement in the corporate media, from Fox 26's interview with Richard Gage of Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth to 9/11 Press For Truth being aired on local television in Colorado to coverage of this year's Bilderberg conference in major British newspapers. Despite these positive developments, however, primetime TV dramas are continuing to portray those skeptical of the official 9/11 story (a clear majority of the American public according to poll after poll) as deranged terrorists who are likely to commit acts of violence.

An example of this phenomenon comes from the crime series Law & Order: SVU. A recent episode of the series featured a storyline in which a deranged "conspiracy theorist" in New York murders tourists taking his picture because he believes they are uploading the pictures to a government database. In a classic example of guilt by association, the investigators' search of the deranged terrorist's computer reveals that he visits online forums and is interested in 9/11 truth and "Bildurburg" (sic). See a screenshot of the fictional terrorists' computer (courtesy of the PrisonPlanet Forum below:

Attempts to portray those in the truth community as mentally unhinged are by no means new. A&E's FBI drama The Beast once famously featured an episode in which a dope smoking terrorist delivered a rambling, inarticulate rant about government involvement in 9/11 in an obvious attempt to portray 9/11 truthers as seedy and delusional. Penn & Teller pronounced the entire 9/11 movement to be "Bullshit" on their popular HBO program of the same name by seeking out the movement's most ridiculous representatives and destroying their character rather than dealing with any substantive claims about the attacks of that day. Glenn Beck—who previously said that Ron Paul supporters were terrorists—has recently discussed how militia members are white supremacists who are likely to commit an anthrax attack in America in order to kill hundreds of thousands of their fellow citizens. And, most chillingly, Beck has tried to link Holocaust Museum shooter Von Brunn to 9/11 Truthers based on no evidence whatsoever.

Ridiculous flights of fancy and transparent media distortions like these would be easy to dismiss if they were not so obviously related to official government talking points and policy papers. Just last week, President Obama tried to equate those who question the government's account of 9/11 with those who wanted the attacks to happen, saying; "I am aware that some question or justify the events of 9/11. But let us be clear: al Qaeda killed nearly 3,000 people on that day.". This is on the heels of a Missouri State Police report asserting that supporters of third party political candidates are potentially dangerous terrorists and Homeland Security documents painting gun owners and returning war vets as violent radicals.

That the corporate media is echoing the government line on domestic terrorism should come as no surprise to those who have been paying attention to the way government openly uses Hollywood, TV, music, books and other media to insert their propaganda into pop culture. As Episode 088 of The Corbett Report podcast points out, the Bush Administration worked hand in hand with Holllywood and TV in the immediate aftermath of 9/11 to begin whipping up mass hysteria to support the Administration in their disastrous "War on Terror." Click on the player below to listen to the episode:

Of course it is up to those who understand the agenda of demonization of the truth movement in the corporate media to counteract this cultural programming in whatever way possible. Actor Daniel Sunjata, co-star of the hit TV series Rescue Me, has been helping inject serious discussion about the questions that still surround the 9/11 attacks into that series and using his celebrity and intelligence to draw attention to the issue through his writing. He needs to be applauded for his efforts and supported by the truth community to encourage others in similar positions to follow his lead.

For those without a corporate media outlet and devoid of celebrity to draw instant attention to the issue, it is still important to demonstrate to others how the media has always been (and continues to be) used to manipulate public opinion and popular sentiment on a range of issues from 9/11 truth to the importance of flu shots to the reality of global warming. One effective way to do this is by using new media technologies to spread information, by writing articles and creating videos to help people understand how they are being programmed by the corporate media.

To that end, The Corbett Report has released two videos ina n ongoing series dedicated to exposing the way media is used to manipulate, shape and influence public sentiment on key issues. So far, the series has examined Ridley Scott's Bladerunner and Aldous Huxley's Brave New World with future installments dealing with Franz Kafka's The Trial, the Wachowski brothers' The Matrix and V for Vendetta, L. Frank Baum's Wizard of Oz, Stanley Kubrick's 2001 and Eyes Wide Shut and many more well-known books and movies.